A 3-D whole-body human thermoregulatory model to simulate cold-induced vasodilation in the hands and feet

The cold-induced vasodilation (CIVD) response of the human body to Arctic-like environments helps delay or prevent cold injuries to peripheral regions, such as the hands and feet. To more comprehensively predict the thermal responses of these body regions to cold stress, here we extended our previously developed and validated anatomically accurate three-dimensional whole-body thermoregulatory human model by incorporating a new phenomenological formulation of the CIVD mechanism. In this formulation, we modulated the cyclic vasodilation and vasoconstriction flow of warm blood from the body core to the peripheral regions solely by determining the heat-transfer exchange between the skin and the surrounding environment, and deactivated it when the core body temperature decreased to 36.5 °C. In total, we calibrated and validated the model using eight distinct studies involving 153 unique male subjects exposed to 10 diverse experimental conditions, including cold-air exposure of the whole body as well as air exposure and cold-water immersion of the hand or the foot. With CIVD incorporated, the model predictions generally yielded root mean square errors (RMSEs) of <3.0 °C for skin temperature, which represented a reduction of up to 3.6 °C compared to when we did not consider CIVD. Similarly, the incorporation of CIVD increased the fraction of predictions within two standard errors of the measured data by up to 63 %. The model predictions yielded RMSEs for core body temperature of <0.2 °C. The model can be used to provide guidelines to reduce the risk of cold-related injuries during prolonged exposures to very-cold environments.